about CMI
Campus Ministry International (CMI) was formed to enable and encourage local churches to effectively reach out to the college and university populations in their vicinities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is done by a variety of means, including motivating Districts and churches to establish and maintain campus evangelism, providing materials and training to aid in the formation of these campus ministries, acting as a clearinghouse for the gathering and distribution of new information, ideas, and materials, and establishing communication and cooperation between campus ministries in our fellowship.

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Choosing a Specific Direction for Your Campus Ministry Chapter

Purpose: To present the options available to a new campus ministry.

A thorough study of evangelism in the Bible, especially in the Book of Acts, reveals that many methods and strategies were used to present the gospel to people and win them to Jesus. Some were reached through mass evangelism, some through one-on-one methods, some through small group meetings, and some by the sovereign act of God. In the same way, campus evangelism must not be dictated by an external source but tailored to meet the needs encountered on any given campus. Colleges are different, campus ministers are different, churches are different, and areas of the country are different. Outreach strategies must also be different. Each campus ministry must assess the needs of the target campus and consider the personnel and tools available before selecting the best way to go.

One of the decisions in beginning a campus ministry is whether to use a structured or unstructured approach, meaning the organizational aspects of a particular ministry, while the second emphasizes the relational dimensions.

·         Structured “Official” Approach—In the structured approach, the group establishes an identity as an officially recognized group on campus. This approach requires the cooperation of the college or university, and it allows the group to use campus facilities, university advertising, and other services. This approach also requires the group to abide by the university’s rules in order to maintain group status.

The organized method of campus ministry may not suit every body. Some may see the university’s rules as restrictions on the work of the gospel. Moreover, this method requires a minimum number of students on campus to “sign up” before recognition is gained. (Many churches that enter campus ministry begin with relatively few interested people at first.) If this approach does not match your particular situation, trying to use an organizational approach can easily divert the time and attention of the members of the outreach.

·         Unstructured “Unofficial” Approach—The unstructured approach is often called the “personal evangelism” method. Of course, college students will not be won by anything other than personal evangelism, but this term is used to emphasize that it is not necessary to establish a campus organization to engage in campus ministry.

In the unstructured approach, the interested person needs only to go on the campus and begin meeting students. After becoming their friend, the campus worker invites the student to study the Bible. Eventually, through multiple contacts, students are exposed to the gospel, and invited to respond.

Basic advantages of this general approach are that it requires no university recognition to share the gospel, allows the campus minister to be more flexible in the presentation of the gospel, and requires no special training, little money, and no special planning meetings or other administrative details.

Regardless of the general strategy chosen, the bottom line is meeting students and sharing the Gospel with them. As such, there are two basic questions which can be addressed: “What can we do to meet people?” and “Once we meet people, what do we do?”

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Part four: Campus Organizations, Off-Campus Approach , Other Options, The Importance of Follow-Up, Advertising Your Ministry, Tools to use